By our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim… we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yesterday I posted that More Means More, how means need to be compatible to the end for real change to happen. The same principle is true for gun violence. The more guns with the purpose of killing human being the more we create “an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes.”
We are all shocked by the killing of six Sikhs during a religious ceremony in their temple in Oak Creek today. When the killing comes home to a community next to Milwaukee it is just as horrific and terrifying as it was at Columbine High School in my brother and his family’s city of Littleton Colorado or as it was in Aurora, Colorado recently. Gun violence increases in the USA as availability of guns meant only to kill become more available. Gun violence breeds more gun violence.
Gun sales, like after the Aurora massacre, will probably go up tomorrow since people still believe that more people with guns will make us safe from gun violence. The President and the First Lady naturally gave their condolences to the Sikh community. Yet the President retains a kill list and if a killer drone needs to take out six innocent persons to get one ‘terrorist’ he can justify it. Saying something about restricting the use of guns only meant to kill human beings is not politically correct for him or for the Republican candidate for president.
Tonight during the Olympics there was an ad for a new ‘reality show’ about ordinary persons competing with special op forces, Navy Seals, Delta Force Green Beret. It is called “Stars and Stripes.”
My friend Marna was co-founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence started when her son and two other mother’s son were killed by a handgun in the hands of someone who could not legally purchase a gun. The three mothers just tried to get a State law requiring background checks for secondary sale of handguns. Democratic legislatures, when they had a chance failed to pass the law and now with a Republican majority in the legislature there is not chance.
Supporters of gun say that guns do not kill, humans do and we would be safer if more ‘good guys’ have guns. I say and the history of gun violence says that more guns means more gun violence and without ‘killer guns’ being so available it would reduce the gun violence. However, one of the talking heads on a national news station, who owns guns, says we need ‘more education’ on guns. My grandson just finished a gun safety program so he can go deer hunting with his father and brother this fall. His lessons of gun safety will mean a safer environment for him to hunt but will do little, if anything, for a reduction of gun violence.
In a few minutes the USA Rover will make a dramatically landing on Mars and if successful, begin a search for life on this planet. We can send a sophisticated robot Rover to Mars but cannot reduce the availability of hand guns only meant to kill human beings.
A strong tenet of the Sikh religious faith is the “equality of humankind, the concept of universal brotherhood.” Although Sikhs are not Muslims or Hindus, due to their distinctive garb of males wearing ‘turbans ‘ and having beards with their color of their skin with Indian heritage often are objects of hatred groups, especially after 9/11.
When will we wake up and realize that more guns availability means more gun violence and realize the truth of Martin Luther King’s statement: “By our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim… we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes.” A person, like the shooter today, can easily purchase a 9mm semi automatic hand gun and walk into a Temple and kill human beings. Guns Kill.
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